The Unlucky Number
by VattaKeto
Summary: Kili successfully tricks his Uncle into letting him finish their quest. Only not all thirteen of their company will reach the mountain. Desolation of Smaug spoilers.
1. Chapter 1- Kili

Author's Note: Hi! This will be a two-chapter, Desolation of Smaug AU, with chapter one focusing on Kili and chapter two focusing on Fili. The second chapter should be up sometime within the next day or two.

Many, many thanks to the lovely Gingefish for Beta'ing this story. :)

Reviews are always appreciated.

**_"_****_The Unlucky Number"_**

He'd done it. For the first time since he was a little dwarfling of but seven, Kili had successfully lied to his Uncle. Granted, his stoic Uncle Thorin had probably known that Kili had taken two cookies from the crooked vase that Fili had made for their mother that past fall. Still, he'd let the child get away with it.

Thorin watched his nephews closely. It was obvious to him that his youngest nephew was hiding something; most likely that he was obviously infatuated with one of those pointy-eared traitors Mahal curse them. Pacing towards the far end of the rickety boat supplied to them by the men of Laketown, Thorin surveyed his company. After counting all present, he was startled to realize that one of their companions was missing.

Going over their names in his head, it appeared that Bofur had missed the boat. Walking quickly towards the stern, for a King never rushed, Thorin looked back at the port that they had departed from. Standing on the dock, he could just make out a short, stout figure with a large, floppy hat. The smile that had crept onto his face vanished just as suddenly as it appeared as he re-counted his crew. Instead of the company being fourteen, they now numbered thirteen. Thirteen, the very number he had been trying to avoid. Where the figure treaded, very few were lucky enough to escape its wrath. And now he and his companions must face a Fire Drake with the unluckiest of numbers.

Lost in his bittersweet memories, Kili barely noticed his Uncle step past him, muttering something about numbers. It was only when he felt a large, calloused hand rest gently yet firmly on his shoulder did he turn away from the sight of the rugged little town and towards the direction where both his elder brother, Fili, and his homeland lay. As he made his way across the uneven wooden floor, he was very careful not to limp too obviously. He would not miss this chance to see the Halls of his Fathers.

It was slow going up through the mountains. Although Erebor was often called the Lonely Mountain, it was by no means the only steep hill in the region.

It was the brutal terrain that caused Kili's leg to finally give out. Letting out a choice phrase in Khuzdul, he fell to the ground, nearly convulsing in pain. The others let out a collective gasp of shock. It's Fili who catches him (_Fili who's always been there to catch him when he stumbled and fell, Fili who's going to sit on the Throne of their Fathers, Fili who will one day be King_).

He ever so carefully opens his eyes, the harsh fading light nearly blinding him, and looks at the face in front of him. The sunlight hitting his brother's blond braids gave them a pale orange glow. _They are quite kingly, aren't they_ Kili decides numbly, opening his mouth to try and speak. Instead, he lets out a scream of agony. His eyes slam shut, trying to block out the constant pain (_fear, pain, _agony_oh please Mahal make it stop make the pain stop please just let it end)._He hears the others talking, but everything they say is muffled, muted, as if they sat in another room or down the hall from him.

_Everyone is leaving me _he thinks trying to focus on one voice, one voice in particular. He hears Bilbo droning soothing nonsense, Thorin gravely inquiring what was wrong, Oin murmuring something medical, but its Fili's voice he is listening for. A voice strangely absent from the muddle of conversation.

He attempted to open his eyes again, searching for Fili (_his brother, his friend, the person who would help Mama give him hugs and soup when he was sick, the person who he gave hugs and soup to when Fili was sick_). As the blinding light flooded his eyes, he heard a few gasps from the company. He was sure he heard a mumbled "He's awake!" and from somewhere near his feet came Balin's voice, with a muffled "Poor lad…"

A silhouette slowly framed itself, and gradually came into focus. Kneeling in front of Kili was not his elder brother, as he had expected, but rather his uncle; his proud, majestic uncle, who would soon be King under the Mountain once again. Thorin asked him gently, "How do you feel, lad?"

Kili tried to speak normally over the chatter of dwarvish voices, but his voice was quieter than Fili's pet mouse Durín. "Alright, I guess…"

Balin let out a laugh. "Ever the optimist, aren't you, lad?"

But Thorin's face was anything but cheerful. "Why did you not tell me how bad this was?"

Kili winced at his uncle's obvious disappointment, avoiding the powerful stare that seemed to gaze straight through the young dwarf. "I'm sorry Uncle…" he muttered, still avoiding Thorin.

Throughout this strained exchange, Balin had been deep in conversation with Oin. Balin had then walked up behind Thorin, before leaning down to be level with Kili. "Laddie…" he began in the strained voice of a doctor giving ill news. "Well lad, I don't want you to worry one bit, okay? It'll all be alright in a jiffy. Just rest your eyes… an', and it'll all be okay," he said, his voice cracking a bit. The old dwarf's eyes were rather misty by this time, as were Kili's own. It wasn't hard to guess that the dear thing was lying to him, trying to make his last moments comfortable.

Kili let his eyes slide closed again. As he regarded the all-encompassing darkness, he heard another voice, not from the outside world but from a distance memory; a snippet of a conversation he had had with his mother before he had left his home to reclaim their true homeland.

_"__Kili dear," she had said softly, pressing something into his hand. "Will you make me a promise?"__He had readily agreed, too excited about leaving to really understand the gravity of she was about to ask of him.__She drew in a breath before continuing, "Just… come home safe, my child.__Don't leave your old mother here fretting by the fire all day.__Come home, darling.__It'd be a nice change for my boys to actually come home safe for once…" she trailed off quietly._

With his last bit of strength, Kili listened intently for a familiar voice… but by now, it was too late. The noises had ceased to be individual voices and were now nothing more than a quiet hum of activity that he could never again see.

He would never see his home, he thought. Never again see the familiar Blue Mountains; never again see the familiar faces that awaited his return- his _promise_ to return.

_Mother, I am so sorry, but it seems I am going to break your promise after all._


	2. Chapter 2- Fili

**Author's Note**: Here we are, at the end of the story. Thanks so much to everyone who followed and favorited! And a special thanks to Stardurin1217 and Gingehfish for reviewing! Again, thanks to Gingehfish for Beta'ing this :)

Reviews are always appreciated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five minutes. Dear Mahal, that's all it took for his world to fall apart.

It had taken him only five minutes to carefully trek down the mountainside a ways to where they had passed a plant with flowers the color of blood. Balin had pointed it out to the young dwarf princes, telling them a story of an age long passed and the sorrows of a dwarf long dead. Oin then joined in the conversation, reciting Seregon's healing properties with textbook accuracy. They had laughed at how perfectly the old toymaker had recalled the book's words before continuing on up and over the rocky terrain. His brother's grunts and whimpers of pain had escaped his notice. When it came to his baby brother, Fili tended not to miss much. At least, he _usually_ didn't miss much.

When Kili's leg had given out, Fili was in shock. He had nearly not reached his brother in time to catch him; that thought alone had worried him almost as much as Kili's collapse. What if he hadn't reached him in time? But more importantly, just how bad was Kili's wound? Oh Mahal, if it was as a bad as Fili began to fear…

A scream of pain shook the dwarf back to reality. Kili's eyes were squeezed shut, his hands writhing and his whole body was seizing violently. Thorin, ever the King, took control of the situation. "Oin, check his wound. Balin and Bilbo, help me hold him down. Fili," Thorin looked at his nephew with a stead gaze. "Get whatever supplies Oin might need." With a nod to his king, Fili went to help the healer. Oin had already cut off Kili's pant leg right above the knee. He was muttering medical nonsense that Fili couldn't hope to understand without at least ten dwarvish years of hard studying. Shaking his head, Oin looked sadly at Fili. "Lad… it's not looking too good." It took Fili a moment to understand the full gravity of what the older dwarf had just said. "W-what? Oin, no, you-you must be wrong, there's got to be something… anything!... I…" but Oin cut him off. Holding up his hand, the healer could be quite imposing when he chose to be. Look back over at the wound, Oin muttered more nonsense under his breath, before nodding to himself. "Seregon," he said finally. "Find me some seregon, lad, alright?" Fili nodded, even though he doubted the old dwarf had seen it. Oin refused to meet his eyes as he ran as fast as his stout legs would take him down the side of the rocky mountain.

Looking back, a sudden realization hit Fili. This was the mountain on which his brother had died, he thinks, as he stares at the cold, lifeless face of Kili.

He had almost run past the little flowering weed. With his focus solely on his brother's deteriorating condition, Fili had trampled the poor plant, nearly mangling it beyond recognition. Luckily, there was a small patch on the other side of the pathway the dwarves had marched up. Grabbing as much as would fit in his hands, Fili ran as fast as he could up the beaten path. Unfortunately, he had also run over a collection of small stones that had been loosened when the dwarves had passed this way earlier. The fall would have been quite comical, if he hadn't been in such a hurry. As it was, Fili had fallen quite hard, slipping a ways down the jagged path. Barely noticing the stinging pain on his knees, the dwarf prince dragged himself off the ground, and, breathing heavily, trekked his way back up the mountainous path to where his brother lay dying.

When Fili saw Thorin's tears, he knew he was too late. The flowers the color of blood fell to the ground; any hope in what they could have done was forever gone. Fili limped forward, towards a reality he didn't want to face. He saw the tears in the others' eyes as he hobbled past them, heard their mumbled words of comfort, but he didn't actually notice them.

Clutched in his uncle's arms was the small, fragile body of the baby brother Fili had never wanted. As he looked into the calm, serene face of the practically beardless dwarf prince, he recalled when his mother had told him when he was going to have a sibling.

_"But Mama," he had petulantly whined.__He could no long sit on her lap while she worked and was quite upset that his new little sibling was to blame.__"What if I don't like them?__Or what if they don't like me?"__Mother had just smiled.__She appeared lost in thought, memories of her own baby brother dancing before her eyes.__Pulling herself out of her grief that Fili had not seen, she turned mock serious and looked down at her eldest son.__"Fili dear.__Do you really think that your sibling could possibly dislike such an excellent big brother?__If you play with them and watch out for them, they won't be able to help but love you, sweetheart."_

And that's what he had done. When Kili was first born, Fili has decided to become the best big brother in the world. When their father had died, Fili had done his best to fill his place in Kili's life. Their mother, Mahal bless her, had done everything she could but still Fili felt like he was responsible for the little dwarfling who followed him everywhere. _Oh Kili.__Why did you have to go where I can't follow?_


End file.
